The hysteria that has been unleashed after vision showed Canberra Raiders forward Hudson Young had hands on the face of Warriors outside back Adam Pompey has been as outrageous as it has been an indictment on the people and commentators who have whipped it up.

Some in the media have all but called for the Maitland-born 21-year-old to be thrown out of the game.

Yes, I am a Raiders supporter. While I agree that it was not a great look that Young had his hand on Pompey’s face, the incident just didn’t appear anywhere near as severe as many are making it out to be.

Andrew Johns called for a 20-week ban – or even being put out for the entire season. Seriously? A whole season? (Though, in fairness to Johns, his harsh stance on gouging has been very consistent, regardless of the players involved).

Reni Matua chimed in to say that in his day Young would have left the field in a body bag. Thanks for your input Reni.

Now, let’s all just put down our torches and pitchforks for a second, take a few deep breaths and try to look at the situation rationally.

Hudson Young of the Raiders (right) is placed on report. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)

Let’s take a moment to view the sort of offences that get the sort of very lengthy bans that Immortal Andrew Johns is advocating.

Now look at John Hopoate smashing Keith Galloway with a forearm to the head. He got 17 weeks for that. The father of Bulldogs player Will also got 12 weeks for sticking his finger into the anus of opposition players.

How about Les Boyd smashing Darryl Brohman’s jaw back in 1983? Jim Comans gave Boyd 12 months for that act of blatant thuggery.

Against that backdrop, how anyone could be calling for 20-week bans or for Hudson Young to be rubbed out of the game for the Pompey incident beggars belief.

The cry of “repeat offender” is being used to justify these hysterical calls.

George Burgess was also a repeat offender. Compare his effort on Robbie Farah to Hudson Young’s hands on the face of Pompey. Burgess got eight weeks for that repeat offence.

George Burgess being replaced on report. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

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Not 20 weeks. Not a season. Eight weeks. He’s playing this Friday night in fact.

Should we expect a mob protesting outside the SCG trying to block George from entering the ground?

While you can see Burgess’ fingers going into Farah’s sockets for a good old feel around, that is not clearly evident at all in the Hudson Young incident.

Further, the Warriors player who is the supposed victim of Young doesn’t seem to know what the fuss is about, as he made clear in his social media exchange with Young.

“Nah you’re sweet brah,” Pompey said in response to Young. “I honestly don’t think anything is wrong with that bala. I didn’t feel anything and I didn’t know you even poked me in the eye.”

Further, back in June NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley was keen to differentiate McGuire’s hands in Dylan Walker’s face from Hudson Young’s on Aidan Tolman. “There is a significant difference between a facial, for want of a better term, and poking around in the eyes of the opponent or what we traditionally call eye gouging.”

When I looked at McGuire’s efforts on Munster or Dylan Walker I see little to no difference to what Hudson Young did. Graham Annesley called McGuire’s actions a facial, not a gouge.

However, with the mob baying for blood the Michael Buettner-led match review committee – the very same one that failed to even charge Josh McGuire on multiple occasions (until after the Origin period) and declared that Nic Cotric should be heavily charged for a spear tackle while Jake Trbojevic shouldn’t be for a virtually identical effort – referred Young straight to the judiciary.

No doubt Young will be wheeled in strapped to a trolley jack, in a strait jacket and wearing a hockey mask too – a la Hannibal Lecter.

Hudson Young of the Raiders. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

The almighty news cycle needs sensation. It craves villains. It demands sacrificial lambs. And if we allow it to, it will take them.

Tim has been an NRL statistician for ABC Radio Grandstand since 1999, primarily as part of their Canberra coverage. Tim has loved rugby league since Sterlo was a kid with lots of hair but was cursed with having no personal sporting ability whatsoever. He couldn't take a hit in footy, was a third division soccer player making up numbers, plays off 41 in golf and is possibly the world's worst cricketer ever. He has always been good at arguing the point though and he has a great memory of what happened.